Macgregor
'Tis now the hour when midnight silence reignsO'er earth and sea, and whispering Zephyr diesWithin his rocky cell; and Morpheus chainsEach beast that roams the wood, and bird that wings the skies.More blest those rangers of the earth and air,Whom night awhile relieves from toil and pain;Condemn'd to tears and sighs, and wasting care.To me the circling sun descends in vain!Ah me! that mingling miseries and joys,Too near allied, from one sad fountain flow!The magic hand that comforts and annoysCan hope, and fell despair, and life, and death bestow!Too great the bliss to find in death relief:Fate has not yet fill'd up the measure of my grief.
Words in this poem
- zephyr n.
- The west wind; poetically, any soft, gentle breeze. [L. zephyrus, Gr. zéphyr.]
- morpheus n.
- The god of dreams.
- awhile adv.
- For a while; for some time; for a short time. [Adj. a + while time, interval.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Macgregor is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, the various hands translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Petrarch, Macgregor, in The Sonnets, Triumphs and Other Poems (1859), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17650, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/petrarch-sonnets/macgregor-16.html, id L14696.
Form and metre
Macgregor is 14 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABBAABBACDCDCD, the pattern of the Italian sonnet. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%). 99% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 10.4 syllables. 29% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other Italian sonnets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABBAABBACDCDCD reignsA · diesB · chainsB · skiesA · airA · painB · careB · vainA · joysC · flowD · annoysC · bestowD · reliefC · griefD
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| 'Tis now the hour when midnight silence reigns | 10 | ···/·/·/˘· |
| O'er earth and sea, and whispering Zephyr dies | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| Within his rocky cell; and Morpheus chains | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Each beast that roams the wood, and bird that wings the skies. | 12 | ············ |
| More blest those rangers of the earth and air, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Whom night awhile relieves from toil and pain; | 10 | ··˘/˘/···· |
| Condemn'd to tears and sighs, and wasting care. | 10 | ˘/·····/˘· |
| To me the circling sun descends in vain! | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Ah me! that mingling miseries and joys, | 10 | ···/˘/˘˘·· |
| Too near allied, from one sad fountain flow! | 10 | ··˘/···/˘· |
| The magic hand that comforts and annoys | 10 | ·/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Can hope, and fell despair, and life, and death bestow! | 12 | ····˘/····˘/ |
| Too great the bliss to find in death relief: | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Fate has not yet fill'd up the measure of my grief. | 12 | ·······/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.